2024 Aston Martin Valhalla: All About the Wild $800K Hypercar
One mid-engine car dies, but the Valhalla will live.
WHAT IT ISDeveloped off the back of the extreme, Adrian Newey-designed Valkyrie hypercar, the Valhalla is Aston Martin's second mid-engine production car and its second hybrid. The Valkyrie cost $3 million and only 275 will be built, yet the Valhalla will be a part of the lineup for some years to come, Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll says. The Valhalla will still be expensive and exclusive, however—it will carry a high six-figure price tag, and 999 will be produced.
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WHY IT MATTERSThe Valhalla was originally intended to be the link between the Valkyrie and a higher-volume mid-engine Aston Martin sports car—the Vanquish—which was intended to compete with cars like Ferrari's 296 GTB and the McLaren 750S. But the mid-engine Vanquish program has been axed, and the name will now be used on a successor to the front-engine, V-12-powered DBS; as a result, the Valhalla will now be used to highlight Aston Martin's Formula 1 effort. It will also form the basis of several hand-built, special-bodied cars Aston plans to release each year. "It will ultimately come in many variants, not just the one we've introduced," Stroll says.
The Valhalla shares elements of the Valkyrie's carbon-fiber chassis, but not its shrieking V-12. Instead, the Valhalla will have a 1,012-hp hybrid powertrain based around a mid-mounted flat-plane-crank version of the Mercedes-AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8. Most of the output will be funneled to the rear wheels via an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, though Aston engineers are also looking at twin front electric motors to help with performance and handling. Target curb weight is 3,640 pounds, and the car is expected to produce as much as 1,400 pounds of downforce at 150 mph.
ESTIMATED PRICEAll of this insane performance doesn't come cheap. Expect pricing to begin somewhere in the $800,000 range to start.
EXPECTED ON SALE DATEFigure on a market arrival sometime in 2024. And we're betting they will all already be spoken for by then.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
